Assessment to Support Continued Development of the EU Strategy to Combat Invasive Alien Species

This recent report
by IEEP and several key European IAS experts paves the way for further
development of the EU IAS Strategy. This work, carried out for the
European
Commission, sets out a suggested outline for key components of the
future
Strategy, envisaged to be finalised in 2011-2012. The report recommends
that a dedicated
IAS Directive would be the most effective instrument for addressing IAS
risks
at the EU level. This Directive would provide a flexible framework with
minimum
standards for IAS action in the EU, taking into account synergies with
other
relevant policy sectors (e.g. animal and plant health) and giving
specific
consideration to areas of highest ecological vulnerability, including
the EU
Outermost Regions.

The report provides
an initial assessment of the possible scale of costs and benefits
associated
with EU policy action on IAS. It concludes that even at the highest
level of
investment in IAS policy development and implementation, EU-level policy
action
is likely to bring more benefits (e.g. avoided costs) than it is
estimated to cost.
Coordinated measures taken at the Community level, such as establishing
an
EU-wide system for early warning and rapid response for IAS, would help
to
reduce costs for EU-27 as a whole.